Poison Ivy-eating animals?

[TXmom]

We have a very bad Poison Ivy infestation that we're trying to figure out how to get rid of it. There's a LOT of it and if we actually tried to pull it up, it would be a huge project. We've tried spraying it with weed killer stuff...it did kill some of it, but again, there's so much PI that we'd need a lot of that, and I hate using chemicals anyways.

My cat and dogs occasionally run through it and are unharmed (sometimes we actually get rashes from petting them...grrrr). I've heard that goats eat poison ivy and it doesn't bother them. I'm seriously considering getting goats! We live in the country, so that actually is a good possibility. Are there other animals that eat it? What would happen if we let chickens in that area? Would they eat it, or would it affect them in any way?

 

[vfem]

This sounds like a job for a flame thrower!!!!

I would try to burn it if it was me.

 

[patandchickens]

No no no no no, NEVER burn poison ivy. You, and/or people and animals downwind, will end up seriously hospitalized (or worse).

Don't even burn logs that have old poison ivy vines still clinging to them. The oil is amazingly persistant. And NOT to be breathed in, in smoke!

I do not believe chickens would do much good against poison ivy, even if it were safe for them (which I have no idea), just b/c they don't usually eat tough-leaved woody-stemmed stuff. I have heard the same as you've heard about goats - might really be worth looking into.

Otherwise, I am afraid the only solution I know of is persistance. Go thru the area every few days at first, every week or two later on, and pull EVERY SINGLE bit that starts to grow back. Eventually it will start to poop out. You will probably always be pulling occasional seedlings but you *can* at least keep it well controlled that way. It is a fair bit of work though.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Reinbeau]

TXmom, you're right about the goats, I've heard people use them all the time to clear poison ivy. Animals (including chickens) aren't affected by it, but they can give it to you by getting it on their coats and you touching them, especially if you are particularly sensitive to it. And as Pat said, never, ever burn poison ivy, breathing in the fumes can kill you dead! An old family friend of ours almost died from it, he spent two weeks in the hospital, most of it in intensive care, it was touch and go for awhile.

I'm always pulling seedlings, the birds love the berries and deposit the seeds all over the place all wrapped up in nice fertilizer packages

 

[TXmom]

Thanks for your replies I knew not to burn it, or I definitely would have done that a long time ago! It's been here since we moved in, and at first I didn't know what it was. Silly me, I started pulling it up by hand I don't recommend that I got a systemic infection and that's when I read about not burning it either.

The only problem with goats is that it's not an easy area to fence in...it's a long skinny strip along the front of our property. I guess I will figure out a way to make a movable pen, and just move them down the strip as they clear an area....